


Hunting for Night Vale

by nimmednostalgia



Series: Night Vale Shorts [1]
Category: Welcome to Night Vale
Genre: Angst, Feels, First AO3 fic, I am a horrible author, M/M, Pre-Strex, accidentally too close to canon, angst angst angst, brief mention of gore, briefly Kevin, cecilos - Freeform, kiss, set somewhere between when we meet Kevin and Cecil does?, this author only writes angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-18
Updated: 2014-07-18
Packaged: 2018-02-09 11:14:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,635
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1980810
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nimmednostalgia/pseuds/nimmednostalgia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Carlos needs to leave Night Vale briefly to confer his findings to his colleagues, but returning may not be as easy as he thinks...</p>
            </blockquote>





	Hunting for Night Vale

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this back around April 20, 2014, so any similarities to anything that came later is accidental...I simply never decided to publish it until now.
> 
> This is my first fic on AO3, but I had several people beta it so hopefully it will not be the worst-written fic you've ever read by a new fic author. XP
> 
> Comments (...preferably constructive ones...) are much appreciated!

"Cecil, I _have_ to leave – I haven't seen my colleagues in ages, and since I have a hypothesis that the mailman here has been eating my mail –"

"Of course he does," Cecil interrupts, a small confused frown on his face, which abruptly smooths out. "Oh! I'm sorry, I keep forgetting you don't just know these things."

Carlos blinks because the shy grin Cecil just gave him makes him forget what he was saying, and his brain automatically shifts that idea from _hypotheses_ to _facts_.

"Ah - yes, sorry. But, ah, since he _is_ eating my mail, I really need to go talk to my colleagues in person. I'll only be gone for a few days, and then I'll come back, I promise."

Cecil's face drops for a moment, so briefly Carlos wonders if he imagined it. Then Cecil’s hands are wrapped around Carlos and he is hugging him rather tightly, before Carlos leans in and kisses him lightly on the lips. Carlos feels Cecil’s lips twitch into a smile.

"Of course, my perfect Carlos. I understand." His voice hitches for a second. "I will see you when you get back."

Still feeling rather guilty about leaving Cecil, even though he really does need to talk to his colleagues, Carlos spends the next hour packing a duffle bag and a box of samples, and then he drives out of Night Vale and into the open desert beyond. He is slightly surprised that the city let him go so easily, to be honest. But he pushes the thought aside as Night Vale – and Cecil – vanish into his rear-view mirror.

\---

Carlos is not surprised by how skeptical some of his colleagues are by his data, but when he shows them the samples he brought, they have to believe him. The small particles of the glow cloud, the blood samples from Hiram McDaniels, and the small samples of wheat and wheat by-products (sealed very well in a vacuum-locked bag), which he managed to collect with some difficulty, have started to slowly decay from the moment he had crossed the town’s border, but had lasted long enough.

None of his colleagues have heard of Night Vale, and the roads there through the desert are twisted and complicated and not on any map, so Carlos eventually gives up on trying to give them directions. (Also because he feels that he would be betraying the city's trust if he said too much, so he is purposefully not too helpful about its location.)

He is at the university's lab for the entire night and into the next morning, sleep forgotten in favor of science. When all of his samples had finally deteriorated, his professors shoved him out the door and told him to get some sleep.

As he drives to a local motel and drops onto the mattress of his room, he thinks of Cecil's face and voice, and all his moving tattoos and his third eye, and abruptly fumbles with the radio, searching for the right station. Maybe, just maybe, someone who had been to the city could find the station –

And then Carlos almost drops the radio in surprise as he _found the station_. It is fuzzy and cuts out every so often, but he _found it_.

Cecil's program wouldn't be on for another hour or so, so Carlos writes some notes on the day's observations until it comes on.

Carlos drops his pen the instant he hears Cecil's voice, and he lies down on the bed holding the radio, falling asleep to Cecil's voice.

_Are you alone right now? Do you seem to be alone?_  
 _If you were to call out into the pitch of the desolate night would anyone respond to you?_  
 _Are you really sure you're accompanied at all on this planet?_  
 _Welcome. . . to Night Vale._

He dreams only of Cecil's voice, that night, and every night after that.

\---

After hearing Cecil's voice the night before, Carlos wants nothing more than to be back on the road to Night Vale. So Carlos finishes talking with his colleagues as quickly as possible and hurries to load his notes and some new pieces of lab equipment into his car. He only makes two more stops, for gas, a small portable radio, and lunch for the road, and then he is driving back into the desert.

He turns on the radio and leaves it on the channel where he had heard Cecil's voice. Since the signal is only static at the moment, he also turns on the car's CD player, which has been mysteriously stuck playing Taylor Swift songs since Cecil had mentioned he liked her music. (Carlos checked, and found that CD in the slot is actually Beethoven.)

He listens to Taylor sing while he drives across miles of sand, hunting the radio signal which occasionally fades in and out.

\---

Approximately fifteen hours later, Carlos is standing outside his car, staring at the empty sandscape around him.

He is _sure_ he is at the right place. He had carefully taken notes and pictures of the few landmarks along the way, and there is even a large area of flattened sand where Night Vale should be, but...no Night Vale. He can even see Desert Bluff's water tower some distance away.

But Night Vale was gone. Even the signal from NVCR was weak here, flickering in and out with every word.

Carlos swallows thickly and gets back in his car, driving to Desert Bluffs quickly, trying to swallow back the lump growing in his throat.

His first stop is a gas station, and then because the tourism office is already closed for the day, he drives to the radio station, thinking of Cecil.

When he reaches the radio tower, he almost jumps a foot in the air when he thinks he spots Cecil for a moment, but Carlos quickly realizes it isn’t actually Cecil, the man just looks an awful lot like him. The double, he realizes, recalling Cecil’s broadcast on the subject. When the double notices his gaze, he is waved into the recording studio, since the double’s show is clearly not on the air.

“Hello,” Carlos says slightly nervously, holding out his hand. “My name is Carlos.”

“Oh, hello! My name is Kevin. Are you new to Desert Bluffs?” The double, no, Kevin, Carlos corrects himself, smiles, and although the smile seems sincere, Carlos feels goosebumps break out across his arms. _That smile._ There was something about that smile...Carlos wasn’t sure what it was, but it seemed almost _predatory_.

“Ah,” Carlos mutters, realizing he hasn’t replied. “No, I have been living in Night Vale for more than a year now.”

Kevin’s eyes narrow a fraction of a centimeter at the mention of the rival town, but his smile gets wider, if anything. Carlos’ goosebumps prickle across his arms again.

“Ah, a visit from one of our old neighbors! How can I help you?”

Carlos spends a good ten minutes explaining how he had left Night Vale for a few days, only to return and find the town had disappeared, and he asks if Kevin knows where it is.

“Hmm...I think you are right, and the town has moved. But I’m afraid I cannot help you.”

Carlos frowns slightly. “You can’t because you don’t know where it has moved, or because you know something but can’t tell me?”

Kevin stares at him for a moment, and Carlos takes that as his answer, shaking his head. “Forget it...I’ll find it on my own, somehow.”

Now that his main question has been answered (as much as it could be, anyway), Carlos actually looks around the studio and freezes. _Something_ that looks rather unnervingly like blood and eviscerated animal - at least, he hopes it is _animal_ \- organs is covering almost all the surfaces of the room, including the radio equipment.

While Kevin makes friendly small talk about the weather and his radio program and how he would very much like it if Carlos would listen in the future, Carlos sneaks a sample of the substance onto a swab he carries in the pocket of his lab coat, resolving to study the material and return later, if he could, for further study. Once he had found Night Vale again.

Getting back into his car, Carlos stops at the local grocery store and buys enough nonperishable food for a few days, avoiding anything that has hair or teeth. After loading the bags into his car and buying a few gallons of gas in a small container in case he runs dry before finding another town, he turns on his radio again and starts the car.

Carlos breathes a sigh of relief as he passes the town limits. Kevin had been nice, but Carlos couldn’t shake the (very unscientific) feeling that the town was somehow more dangerous than Night Vale.

Noting that the radio signal grows stronger as he drives west, Carlos drives off in that direction, following the signal even though it would sometimes abruptly grow or shrink in strength, almost like the city was moving closer or further away.

_Cecil,_ he thinks, as Cecil comes on the radio again. _Cecil, I will come back to Night Vale. I will come back to you._

He listens to Cecil's voice on the radio as he drives down the road, Taylor singing softly on the car's stereo, turned down so it was barely audible.

\---

Cecil sits in his studio after his broadcast ends and gazes at the photo on his desk of he and Carlos, sitting under a tree. Carlos was writing scientific notes in a notebook and Cecil was staring at him, a small smile on his face. The deputy of the sheriff's secret police had been nice enough to give him a copy of the photo.

_Carlos,_ he thinks. _Come back soon, Carlos._

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Finding Night Vale](https://archiveofourown.org/works/3531041) by [ImprobableDreams900](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ImprobableDreams900/pseuds/ImprobableDreams900)




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